The present disclosure is related to a system and method for sorting items.
Sorting of items is required when some grouping of previously ungrouped items is desired. Simple sorting systems designate a sort destination for each desired grouping and the items are sorted to the sort destinations in a single pass. The sorting becomes more complicated for various reasons, including when there are more desired groupings than available sort destinations or the desired groupings are not defined until the identity of all the items have been determined. For example, some sorting schemes have a sort hierarchy where a particular sort destination may include several subsidiary or child sort destinations that are only activated if certain criteria, such as number of items, is met. In some instances, all sort destinations may be unknown until the desired destination of each item is identified.
Automated sorting systems exist to sort items as well. For example, automated systems exist to sort mail. These automated mail sorting systems generally have a limited number of sort destinations or the cost of adding additional sort destinations may be prohibitive in terms of capital expense and space or other requirements. Some automated mail sorting systems handle these described difficulties by using multiple sorting passes. For example, an initial sort can be performed where the destination zip code of each piece of mail is determined and a set of different destinations is schemed. Such an initial sort may also “knock out” some percentage of items where their destination was predefined in the first sort, for example, local zip codes. However, additional sorts (and additional passes through the automated sorting system) may be required to sort all of the items according to the set of destinations defined in the initial sort. Such additional passes can burden the overall handling process and significantly reduce the throughput of an automated mail sorting system.
Other sorting schemes are also known to exist. For example, Pitney Bowes in Great Britain used an automated sorting system such as what is described above, however, in addition, the system assessed the amount of mail sent to each bin to determine when a complete group of mail has been achieved based on a parameter such as total thickness, volume or weight. A complete group of mail could be defined by a particular bin being physically full or a mail bag being filled. When the system determines a complete group of mail has been achieved, the system redirects all future pieces of mail from the prior destination bin to a new destination bin (with the same sort destination).
Another sorting scheme is called “QUICK PAK.” It assesses each destination bin to determine if a bin has reached a given limit. When the limit is reached, all future pieces of mail directed to the full bin are redirected to an abort pile for future resorting.
The present disclosure is directed toward a system and method that eliminates the above described multiple pass requirement by dynamically adapting an array of item destinations as items are processed and then performing a limited resorting of items to conform to the changed array as may be needed.